Thank you @Bill.French!
Category is the name of the field and attractions is the actual text in the field that I want the API link to filter by. The Categories field can contain one or several of 103 different category types. Below is a screenshot of the table with the Category field and the “attractions” text in the field highlighted.
Please excuse my ignorance, but I’m not sure what you mean by hard-coding it. In AirTable, I have filtered the table using the Categories field for “attractions” and the filter returns the correct results, as demonstrated in the image below.
I tried the samples you included in your post, but couldn’t get it to work. I’m sure it’s something I’m doing wrong and if you can show me the correct way to make this filter work I’d be very grateful. I’ve tried everything I can think of the the last 2 days and can’t figure it out.
Thank you again for your help!

This is expected because I was assuming things about your data model that were untrue apparently.
First clue - given the new information about the data model, Categories is a linked field (apparently). As such, you cannot filter based on “=”; rather, it likely requires the “FIND” (in field) operator, right?. The added complexity of the linked field could be at issue as well. Lastly, what scripting environment is the API call coming from?
Forum-debugging of API code (at best) is about guidance - we can provide guideposts, but we can’t build it because it would be extremely counter productive without full and complete access to all the resources - ergo, it’s now a project - ergo, it’s now a consulting gig.